Since 1975 · 501(c)(3)
Join Donate Contact
← Explore the Archives
Research & Archives

Veteran Correspondence

Letters, postcards, and other correspondence between the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association and veterans, arranged alphabetically by last name. 1,568 entries across 25 letters.

About this collection

Russell Strong served as Secretary of the 306th Bomb Group Association from its founding in 1975 until 2007. Over those years the Association grew, held reunions and organized memorials, and Strong’s correspondence with veterans runs through the whole of it.

Across the 1980s the Association ran a mail questionnaire project, sending veterans printed cards to complete and return with details of their service. The cards that came back were scanned and are held here as a single file, arranged alphabetically.

The wider collection is the Association’s correspondence with veterans, arranged by surname. Much of it was written decades after the war, by men setting down what they remembered of it, which is what makes the collection worth reading alongside the wartime records elsewhere in this archive.

Postcard Project (1981–1990)

As part of its continuing effort to document the men who served with the 306th Bomb Group, the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association conducted a mail questionnaire project to gather information directly from veterans.

Veterans were asked to complete and return cards providing details about their service, including their squadron or organization, military specialty, dates of assignment to the 306th, and other information that could help complete the Association’s historical records. Aircrew members were also asked, when applicable, to provide the number of missions they flew and identify fellow members of their crews. The Association explained that the information would assist in preparing Group directory information and in filling gaps in its records.

The surviving responses provide something particularly valuable today: information recorded in the veterans’ own handwriting and, in many cases, additional personal notes about their wartime service. Some veterans added crew names, aircraft assignments, combat experiences, decorations, transfers, or other details beyond what the questionnaire requested.

These returned cards became an important part of the Association’s research collection. Preserved together, they provide a unique first-person resource for identifying 306th Bomb Group personnel, reconstructing crews, verifying service information, and preserving details that might otherwise have been lost.

Veteran Correspondence, by last-name letter

Digital copies of the Association’s other correspondence, mainly with veterans, arranged by last name. Pick a letter, or use the “Show all letters” toggle when you need browser search (Ctrl/Cmd+F) to look across the whole archive.

Pick a letter.

Last names beginning with B

165 entries

Last names beginning with C

166 entries

Last names beginning with G

103 entries

Last names beginning with H

151 entries

Last names beginning with I

3 entries

Last names beginning with L

92 entries

Last names beginning with M

161 entries

Last names beginning with Q

1 entries

Last names beginning with S

141 entries

Last names beginning with U

2 entries

Last names beginning with X

0 entries

No correspondence on file for last names beginning with X.

Last names beginning with Z

3 entries